Another Day of Emotions

My lovely 14-year-old graduated from 8th grade today in a ceremony in Golden Gate Park. Taller than all of her friends and most of her teachers, she's a big girl now -- strong, smart, beautiful and mature beyond her years.

 Here she is in a lineup with six of her friends afterward. I love their smiles and the smiles of all 14-year-olds. I remember when I was 14, vividly, but that is another story, one over a half-century old.

The teacher who gave her tribute talked about having wanted to get to know this mysterious girl for years, only to find out when she finally reached her grade, she wouldn't talk to her -- at first.  And then how gratifying it was, finally, when Julia opened up to her.

I think we all feel that way about Julia. She is a very special person to get to know, but it always has to be on her terms, not yours.

Dylan couldn't make the ceremony (taking that damned SAT) but Aidan was there with his little buddy and admirer Ozzie, another budding red-haired athlete in this part of the universe.

Tonight we had a party celebrating Aidan and Julia's graduations. Old friends, good friends. People who really care about my kids, and always have. They take me aside and tell me my kids are special. Do you know what is really special?

People who care enough to notice, to connect, and show up when it matters. People who always ask what is going on with you even as you are asking what is going on with them. People who reconnect even after a long silence. People who sense when you need a hug. People who let you in when you sense they need a hug. People who cry behind their sunglasses when their kids graduate.

People who see one another for what we all are -- deeply flawed individuals, weak at times, lonely at times, needy at times, and every now and again very much on top of our world.

To Julia and Aidan, my current crop of graduates, Congratulations!

To Dylan, your turn is coming, buddy -- next year.

P.S. We just figured out tonight that Dylan is now 6'2", the tallest of all the Weirs. A year from now we will celebrate this most cerebral of all Weirs when he graduates from Lowell High School. He already has planned out his college and graduate track -- majoring in psychology and history, studying criminology at U-C, Irvine, and working for the FBI.

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Day of Emotions

In the sun one last time in Balboa's stadium to watch my soccer player, this time not for a game but his graduation from high school.

 Afterward Aidan and his girlfriend, Zaira, were all smiles.

It also was my oldest daughter's birthday. As I was about to leave to El Cerrito, the scary news that her little sister and her three young kids had been in a freeway auto accident. Luckily they were all okay and the boys were thrilled when the CHP gave them a ride afterward.

The cake Sarah had cooked for Laila had been ruined in the crash, so I picked up one at the last moment.

We were reunited and celebrated her birthday.

I'm back home, trying to relax after an emotional day before work at KQED early tomorrow. It's hard, frankly. There were even more moments to this day that pulled at my emotions -- all kinds of family feelings, and the nuances of helping them (and me) navigate transitions.

I guess it's good I held my emotions in check in public today. It helps that Aidan seems to maintain a pretty healthy distance from taking his graduation too seriously. But still, I remember his first day of high school so clearly, back in 2009.

Soccer is a big part of his high school story, as reflected in this blog. But also his commitment to helping other kids do better in school and his writing, including his poetry that won a citywide competition. The topic: diversity.

Today, after the ceremony, a young man with Down's Syndrome came up to Aidan and asked him to sign his artwork. Aidan did and hugged him. Later he told me he has known that boy throughout high school, and that he is a very good artist. He was one of the few students who befriended the boy, always talked with him in class, and compared their art together.

I am not sure why exactly or how it happened, but Aidan was given a special award today at graduation, the Martin Luther King award for celebrating diversity.

I'm proud of him as an athlete, and as a student, but I'm proudest of all of him as a young man who always has a big heart for others, and recognizes the special attributes of those others dismiss, overlook, or just ignore.

Congratulations, graduate!

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Every Day's a Work Day

It's a big week upcoming -- end of the school year and two graduations. Today, a holiday, the kids and I had brunch at one of our favorite neighborhood spots. I love the way the three of them get along with one another -- joking, competing, insulting but ultimately laughing together -- throughout our meal.

It's a freezing day (relatively speaking) here in foggy SF, a day when we rightly honor our armed forces members and veterans.

It's also a day for the 8th grade barbecue out at Ocean Beach tonight and a day for movies for the boys. It's just another work day for me, the blogger, as my 7x7 posts routinely appear on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning I have to write them on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I noticed a few gray hairs in my 17-year-old son's red hair today -- first time I've seen them but he says he has "a lot." Our hair does turn gray early in the Weir family, but this seems earlier than usual to me...

He has one more final exam -- math, ugh. Then he'll move on to his senior year next fall. His slightly older brother has already been told he has graduated officially; he's passed all his classes and is a high school graduate now.

Tonight the Detroit Red Wings play in a Stanley Cup playoff game. Can't help thinking about my late father and how much he loved watching these games. I'll watch and root for him, now I'm officially off-duty as a blogger...

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A Bob Dylan Sampler

The greatest artist of our time. I do not know why I was moved to post these clips tonight, but it just came to me to do it...

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What Is A Journalist Anyway?

The media organization where I have recently started worked is KQED, the largest public broadcasting company in Northern California.

I've been walking the ten minutes from my apartment to the station a day or two each week to write blog posts for the company's News Fix blog.

Here are links to some of those posts, both signed and unsigned:

05/24/2013 USGS   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/24/98087/usgs-seeks-earthquake-scanners#more-98087

05/24/2013  Zumper   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/24/98037/san-francisco-rent-prices-zumper

05/20/2013 Tumblr   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/20/tumblr-joins-flickr-inside-yahoos/

05/20/2013 Bay Bridge   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/20/97597/

05/17/2013 Golden State Warriors   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/17/warri/

05/17/2013 Google Glass   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/17/97460/

05/17/2013 Unemployment   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/17/97521/

05/13/2013 SF Giants   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/13/96973/

05/10/2013 Google Book Scan   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/google-book-scanning-fair-use

05/10/2013 Bratton Report   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/10/bratton-oakland/

05/08/2013 Income Disparity & Public Transit    http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/

05/07/2013 3-D guns   http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/05/07/96407/

I've provided the links here not because I think any of you would necessarily want to read these posts but because they illustrate some of the diversity of topics a journalist deals with on a daily basis.

People often ask me what it is like being a journalist. They have romantic ideas, based on TV, novels, or movies. But trust me, romance is rarely to be found in journalism. Mostly it is grinding work, pressurized as you attempt to document the news and avoid making mistakes.

You strive to be fair and balanced. Those who think journalists pursue their own political agendas are hopelessly naive. We do not have and have never had that kind of luxury.

The above list does, however, reveal some of my interest areas, since I could have written about other topics rather than the ones I chose to publish. There is a heavy dose of tech and sports running through those posts.

But my many other interests -- books, music, the environment, politics, parenting, global issues, relationships, family and on and on -- haven't yet found expression in this new venue. If I am able to continue writing there in the future, perhaps they will...

Meanwhile, I have four more upcoming days scheduled to commute to this job.

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